A recent study, which set out to understand the genetic makeup of the many different phages that live on the bacteria living on the cells of our skins, found that no fewer than 130 entirely new species. The study, Novel phages of healthy skin metaviromes from South Africa also hinted at directions for future research..
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University of the Western Cape research identifies 130 new skin viruses
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National Health Insurance will cost more than R350 billion:- Solidarity
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“VAT will effectively have to be doubled,” says Solidarity. The Solidarity Research Institute has released a report detailing the enormous amount of funding necessary to effectively implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
The numbers far exceed those previously calculated by the Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi. What’s more worrying is the heavy impact this will have on South African taxpayers.
According to Solidarity researcher, Morné Malan, funding required by the NHI is closer to R357 billion with a deficit of approximately R210 billion.
NHI: How does it affect the taxpayer?
Malan outlined the exorbitant fees which would need to be carried by the South African taxpayer. According to his research, value-added tax (VAT) would effectively double in order to carry the weight of NHI.
Commenting on the burden taxpayers will be forced to carry, Malan said:
“It is very difficult to determine from where the additional mon
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South Africa does little to address depression and other mental illnesses:- World Mental Health Day
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As a country, not much has been achieved in building a society that embraces mental illness. For those who are distressed, help is available. Contact SADAG on: 011 234 4837.
Wednesday, 10 October marks World Mental Health Day. However, the topic of our mental health should be at the forefront more often than it is.
In South Africa, the statistics on deaths caused by mental illness are disturbing – to say the least. The country only keeps estimates on suicide rates, but globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is one of the leading causes of death.
South Africa not quick enough to raise awareness
There aren’t enough facilities and resources in South Africa that are catered towards people suffering from depression and anxiety. These topics are often brushed aside or never embraced in homes that raise young adults who experience this the most.
IOL News reported that:
New York, this week became th
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Need to know information:- What to look out for when choosing a medical scheme
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Are your health insurance costs too high? Try decoding your medical aid terms and conditions and associated costs to make sure that it works for you.
“While health insurance is important, it comes at a cost that is rapidly rising. Unfortunately for the consumer, this affects medical scheme membership contribution rates, and the increases of which are sometimes significantly higher than general inflation.
As schemes try to contain their costs in the face of increasing claims, they make changes to their plans and benefits, which can come as a surprise to the consumer,” says Mark Payne, CEO of the Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA).
Annual review of your plan
He recommends that an annual review of your plan is absolutely vital, and will affirm that it is serving your needs rather than the other way around.
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New fears about medical aid law changes may cause ‘doctor drain’
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A key issue of the proposed Medical Schemes Amendment Bill is the impact on doctors, resulting from a proposed uniform tariff for healthcare services.
Concerns have been raised about the proposed Medical Schemes Amendment Bill, one of many health-related bills which have been going through various motions in Parliament.
Recently, the cabinet approved the Bill to regulate medical schemes, and it will now be published and made available for public comment.
Among the concerns raised is the impact of a proposed uniform tariff for healthcare services, leading to a possible exodus of doctors and other healthcare professionals to countries where they can get “full value” for their services by charging tariffs they see as reasonable.
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The NHI debate is stuck in the weeds
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The National Health Insurance (NHI) is not a radical shift to dismantle a functioning system, but an opportunity to review two poorly functioning ones.
The public sector sees very high volumes of patients but gives them bad service and produces very poor outcomes. The private sector is modelled on low volume, high cost care – it uses its huge quantities of resources badly, to service very few people.
As the Health Market Inquiry (HMI) report makes clear, the large commercial medical schemes are resisting needed reforms that with better productivity would lead to the convergence of the two systems. In particular, they persist with an outdated tariff system that pays for services not outcomes and doesn’t support team-based delivery models. This is probably because it threatens their claim payment and ‘managed care’ role that justifies a very high income. This strategy is counterproductive for their members.
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The Showdown at the UN: SA takes on the US for cheaper drugs
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When the US went to bat for Big Pharma in the fight against this killer disease, South Africa wasn’t having any of it. Here’s what happened next.
Graveyard cough, white plague, consumption. A killer by any name, TB has stalked the human race for aeons, lurking in crowded tenements or following miners deep underground, hanging in the air of our hospitals.
Always there, yet rarely spoken.
Today, it kills more people than HIV and malaria combined, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports. In South Africa, Statistics South Africa’s latest data shows TB remains the leading cause of non-violent deaths.
Yet it took the United Nations 73 years to call a meeting on TB — and only because a very excitable South African health minister agitated enough for it.
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Bonitas:- Price hike and big changes for medical aid plans in 2019
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Medical aid scheme Bonitas is to increase prices across its various plans by a weighted average of 8.9% in 2019 – while also launching two new lower-cost plans.
The group said that the weighted average is on par with the industry corridor of 3% to 4% above CPI, and comes amid a tough economic climate, which included a hike in VAT to 15% in April 2018.
“The past 12 months have been extremely trying, with a number of uncertainties and changes anticipated,” said Bonitas principal officer, Gerhard Van Emmenis.
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“In addition, consumers have been heavily impacted by the increase in VAT and escalating prices which resulted from this.”
In July Bonitas reporte
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ATM pharmacy launches in Bloemfontein (Free State)
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Twin City Mall in Bloemfontein is the newest site for the innovative ATM pharmacy that gives patients with chronic illnesses repeat medication in under five minutes.
The Pharmacy Dispensing Unit (PDU) was unveiled on 25 September, during Pharmacy Month, at the central community shopping centre, which is on main transport routes and is open for extended hours including weekends and public holidays. The first such dispensing unit was launched in Alexandra in Gauteng in March this year.
The Pharmacy Dispensing Unit works like an ATM for medication, with Skype-like audio-visual interaction between patient and a remotely located tele-pharmacy contact centre. Patients are able to talk to pharmacists in a call centre 400km away in Centurion, Gauteng – showcasing the benefits of tele-pharmacy to patients in rural and outlying areas. This allows patients to access accurate medicine information and counselling from qualified pharmacy staff.
The dispensing data is hosted
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Why is alcohol withdrawal so hard on some people, the genes may hold the answer
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Some heavy drinkers suffer intense withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop drinking – some, less so. A new Yale-led international study of individuals with alcohol dependence has identified gene variants that may help explain why “detox” from alcohol is particularly difficult for some people.
The researchers reported their findings on 25 September in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism.
“Alcohol takes more lives in the United States and South Africa every year than opioids, but there are few effective treatments to help people who have an alcohol use disorder,” said Andrew H. Smith, lead author of the study and a research affiliate in the laboratory of senior author Joel Gelernter, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and of Neuroscience. “For people who experience intense withdrawal symptoms, that’s one more barrier they have to face while
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Smart hospitals in Africa set to achieve more high performance facilities
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The next generation of healthcare buildings will be very different from the hospitals, clinics and general practitioner (GP) surgeries we are familiar with today.
A revolution in building design is already underway, which has largely been prompted by an acceleration of technological innovation, changing population demographics, shifts in expectations of how healthcare should be provided and environmental considerations.
In the pursuit of a prosperous future of inclusive and sustainable growth, where all African people have a high standard of living, quality of life, sound health and well-being, learning from global trends and adapting these to suit African conditions may be the key to building successful networks of healthcare infrastructure and medical facilities across the continent.
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A Gauteng hospital to be rebuilt for R1.3 billion
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Civil society organisations say that the cash-strapped province should rather save money and renovate the abandoned Kempton Park hospital.
Not only will the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development spend R127-milion to demolish the derelict Kempton Park Hospital, formerly known as Khayalami, they are planning to rebuild it for a whopping R1.3-billion.
This decision has been criticised by civil society organisations, who say the cash-strapped province should rather renovate the abandoned hospital and not waste money. The DA has promised to “closely monitor” the process.
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Costs ‘closely matched’
Defending their decision on why they could not renovate the Ekur
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Looking at some South Africa hospital horrors
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South Africa´s recent spate of hospital horror stories and the sharp rise in cases of medical negligence are disturbing with medical negligence claims against provincial the country´s Health Departments increasing by around 25 per cent per year between 2011 and 2016.
This is according to Kirstie Haslam, partner at DSC Attorneys who says that the Gauteng Department of Health, (South Africa´s wealthiest province) receives a particularly staggering number of negligence claims each year. Since January 2015, it has been forced to pay out more than R1.017 billion ($US74 million) to settle 185 medical negligence claims.
“Deteriorating conditions in state hospitals, as well as incompetence and gross negligence on the part of staff members, are at the root of these claims – the vast majority of which were ruled in favour of the plaintiffs,” Haslam explains.
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It’s now 90 years ago that Penicillin was discovered – and despite resistance, the future looks good for antibiotics
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When the NHS turned 70 this year, I was reminded of another anniversary which has had an enormous impact on healthcare over many years. Penicillin is 90 this year.
Discovered in September 1928 by Alexander Fleming, it was first used as a cure when George Paine treated eye infections with it in 1930. A method for mass production was devised by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1940, and it was first mass produced in 1942, with half of that total supply used for one patient being treated for streptococcal septicaemia.
In 1944, 2.3m doses were produced in time for the Normandy landings of World War II. And it was then that the miracle of penicillin became clear. Soldiers who had previously died from septicaemia were surviving.
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CANCER:- Micorocoil localisation in treating early-stage lung cancer
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A breakthrough minimally invasive surgery technique, microcoil localisation, allows doctors to pinpoint and remove tiny nodules in early-stage lung cancer without damaging additional healthy tissue.
“Rather than cutting out an entire lobe, or potentially even an entire lung, we can just take out a small bit of tissue,” said Dr Jason Lempel, a thoracic radiologist at Cleveland Clinic in the United States. “We’re able to treat patients with early-stage lung cancers quickly and thus decrease the chance of the cancer spreading.”
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Cleveland Clinic is one of a handful of medical centre to offer the surgery. A review of the team’s first 20 cases has revealed a 100% success rate in retr
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